Climbed from Bells Canyon and did the west face. Amazing views of the surrounding mountains! Ran out of food and water so I drank some stream water from Thunder Bowl. It tasted so good and I didn't get sick! Unfortunately the bushwhacking down Thunder Bowl to Bells Canyon was absolutely miserable. Worst bushwhacking I've ever done.

I was able to "run" only a few miles during the entire outing. This was my first time using Bell's Canyon as a point of access to the granite summits of little Cottonwood et al, and, quite frankly, it is likely my last.

Beautiful summit, nary a soul in sight, simply the frost-fractured granite chaos lining the aprons from White Baldy to the backside of Lone Peak.

It took nearly 3.5 hours to make the summit, and nearly as long to make it down to the Boulders trailhead.

Next time I check-in on North Thunder, I think I will do so from Coalpit or Sam Thomas, preferably during late Spring/early Summer with plenty of consolidated snow.

Nasty nasty climb up Sam Thomas gulch. Absolutely awful---got ripped to shreds by all the bushwacking, loose rock, and loose footing. Missed the 7800' cut over to Coalpit and opted for the NW ridge. Terrible bushwacking until we reached the ridge. The ridge is super steep and semi technical most of the way but generally safe if you're patient and know what you're doing. After essentially topping out around 10,500 we got cliffed out and opted to downclimb about 500' in to the bowl towards Bell's canyon. From there we were able to climb back up to the ridge about 1/4 mile short of the summit and traversed over to the summit. Beautiful summit. Brian ran out of water before we made it to the top unfortunately. As a result of fatigue, heat, lack of water, and lack of mountaineering experience, the Thunder ridge traverse over to South Thunder took over an hour and a half with the most tricky section being the claimed crux about 1/4 mile south of North Thunder with the 50' or so downclimb. There was a rope there but it had been snapped. Later, we descended early in to Thunder Bowl below the gendarmes and had no problem going around and back up to the ridge to get to South Thunder summit. From here it was an easy descent to Lake Hardy and down to Alpine for a SL County to UT county traverse. Not sure I'll ever return to North Thunder. Long hard day, but super rewarding and I am stoked to check this one off the list.

A bit of spicy climbing getting around the first gendarme north of South Thunder, then more bits of fun here and there. Descended the Needle and Hogum Creek, which sucked. I started traversing from Pfeifferhorn -- yes, this is backwards. Trip report.

5/4/2013- Climbed with the WMC via Bells Canyon. From Bells we worked our way directly into Thunder Bowl and gained the ridge a few hundred yards short of the summit. Amazing day with pleasant temperatures, great visibility, and no wind on the summit. Awesome glissading back to the bottom of Thunder Bowl. Great day.

I stared at this mountain a very long time when I would drive without being able to figure what its name was, despite all my map reading and efforts. Hard peaks to reach and for that reason they probably see little traffic. Lightning ridge is awesome to behold nearby and more so is "the Cliffs of Insanity" which I have named myself. You'll know them when you see them below and just East. There is even less of a trail to those forms but I still want to hike to them one day.

7/19/2007 With Moogie737, Michael, Brent, and Lana. Did Bells Cleaver and then N Thunder. Was going to go as below, but fortunately was overruled. We traversed the south side of Bells Cleaver to the dam and this worked out much better.

8/7/2006 With lesdubois. Went as below. Again swore I'd never bushwhack down Thunder Bowl.

7/29/2000 With MM via Bells Canyon. Did Bells Cleaver and then North Thunder. Bushwhacked down Thunder Bowl back to trail and swore I'd never do it again.

8/14/1999 With MM from Alpine before the road was gated off. We were able to drive all of the way to the First Hamongog, but it was nail biting time driving back down. We took the trail that goes east from the First H, went to Lake Hardy, then South Thunder, then on to North Thunder, and then retraced our steps.

Picked a good one for my first contribution to Summit Post! Long Day rount trip from/to Bells TH, but worth every sore muscle fiber! Met Joe and Shelley atop the peak - nice to meet you guys! Met 2 other summiters on the way down, crowded day for this peak. Attempted Bells Cleaver on the way down but must not have been on the right line b/c I could not find a way through the cliffs.

The line to/from the south ridge of N. Thunder from Thunder Bowl seemed far easier than trying to breach the cliff band just north of the peak.

Second climb on 7/4/2011. Climbed via west couloir. Much nicer with all of the boulders covered by snow

First climb. Climbed as an add on to The Beatout. Very tricky scramble along Thunder Ridge and ended up doing some Class 4 moves that were a little uncomfortable. Summit log appears to have disappeared. Plenty of solitude.

Be careful parking at the Bells Canyon trailhead. When we got down, my car had a window smashed out. The police told me this is becoming a common occurence there.

Two previous attempts failed: one due to weather (see my trip report), the other due to taking a really long and inefficient route and getting burned out (settled for Bighorn Peak that day instead).
This time did it from Bells Canyon as a snow climb up the west gully to the north ridge, looping back into the gully via the south ridge, with vanman798, and it went perfectly, other than, thanks to the dark and my sleep deprivation for the alpine start, bringing an old right boot instead of my good left boot to the trailhead and having to go home to get it (after deciding that 6000 vertical feet would be hard in two right boots), delaying our start an hour, along with losing my GPS somewhere near the summit.

eight times to the Summit to date Across Thunder bowl, From South Thunder via the Ridge and Via Coalpit, I believe PellicidWombats first entry was one I lead for the WMC in 2004. Contrary to what Steve Elmer said in his entry we got chased a little by a Thunder storm while traversing the bowl that day.